The Concept WAY Structure Reconsruction in the English Language

Abstract

he article deals with comparative cognitive approach to the concept structure reconstruction representing everything that belongs to the concept, everything that makes it a fact of culture – the original form (etymology), history, modern associations and evaluation. The sphere of knowledge reflected in the concept WAY has the kernel (notional etymological component) – periphery (value and figurative component) structure that actualizes the ways of acquiring metaphorical axiological religious senses. The meanings of the concept WAY lexical units are transferred from the prime Proto-Germanic cognitive complexes (five models), associated with natural element EARTH/PATH and FAMILY/ENEMY RELATIONS, into metaphorical representations (righteousness, indifference, repentance, imitation, overcoming difficulties) in the religious context of the English language. The boundaries between the kernel and the periphery components are diffuse and are not outlined, the area of the far periphery is open and, in principle, cannot be limited to any finite number of contexts. Тhe research reflects metaphorical senses conceptualization in the consciousness of English speakers (based on the concept WAY) and the representation of the main fragment of the language and the conceptual picture of the world – axiological religious cognitive knowledge (Pre-Christian – Christian – Modern/Socially formed). The basic informative genetic code “direction forward/to/from/through/after” (with/without somebody) is hidden in the meanings of the Indo-European root *u̯eg̑h “to go /move/ transport in a vehicle” and Proto-Germanic *wega- “course of travel, way” (with an adjectival and adverbial characteristics) profiled through the biblical quotations and transposed in various dictionaries through the mechanisms of five-models metaphorization. The changes in the prime state of human consciousness and ways of its transfer to axiological/religious reality are reconstructed.